Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday he would remain as the head of his ruling Civic Platform (PO) party until Dec. 1, the date he is set to take over as the next European Council president, adding that he was not in favor of early elections in Poland.

"I will lead the Civic Platform until Dec. 1 and then the PO will have to cope with a new leader," Tusk told the Tomasz Lis current affairs program on public television.

Under the Polish constitution, when Tusk hands in his resignation as prime minister in order to take up his EU post, the Polish government as a whole will have to resign. President Bronislaw Komorowski will then name a candidate for a new prime minister, who will have to secure a vote of confidence from parliament.

"I'm not in favor of early elections when there isn't a pressing need," Tusk said.

He added that in 2007 his predecessor as prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, head of the Law and Justice (PiS) party, "probably thought that early elections were a chance to defeat his opponents. And he lost."

Tusk, who was chosen by EU leaders as the next European Council president at a summit in Brussels on Saturday, declined to say who he wanted to see replace him as Polish prime minister.

A key factor was that his successor should be a politician who will not "destabilize the situation in Poland," he said.